The enormous door sported an enormous keyhole. A keyhole that was large enough for the unusually large key inside Jack's inventory.
He took out the Themisphere Legacy Key and inserted it into that large keyhole. It fitted nicely. He then turned the key. Several sounds of clicking were heard. He was surprised a single turn of the key produced so many machinations within the door. Not long after, the sounds of clicking ended and the massive door opened ajar.
"Yes! It is indeed for this door!" Jack uttered triumphantly.
He pushed the door to let it open wider. It was very heavy, even for his strength.
After opening the door wide enough, he entered into a completely dark space. The dark seemed to resist his Dragon Eye's night vision ability, so Jack cast illumination. The light from the wisp revealed a wide corridor behind the door.
Before entering, he didn't forget to take the key out of the keyhole. He didn't want the door to accidentally close behind him, leaving himself trapped inside this place.
After storing the key back in his inventory, he entered the corridor.
It was a long corridor. The light from his illumination spell only lit up his vicinity, so he couldn't see how far this corridor go.
He looked at his radar. No sign of anything inside this place. He wondered if this was a place that nullify his radar ability. But he didn't worry, he also had mana sense. He didn't sense anything suspicious.
The corridor was dull. It was just stone walls, stone floors, and stone ceilings, without any decoration at all. Jack wondered where it led.
Then an unusual thing came into view. It was a statue. A statue of a person in a royal outfit. There were inscriptions under the statue.
Thenodeep, the eleventh king of Themisphere.
"So, this was the last king before Themos?" Jack said after reading the inscription. This late king was displayed with a stern expression. He was skinny and was holding the Themisphere's King Staff. The statue was detailed but also simple. Jack somehow sensed a great strength from the statue.
Although he sensed an abnormality in the statue, he couldn't tell what. He studied the statue for some while but couldn't find anything strange. So, Jack continued proceeding through the corridor.
Not several steps from where he found Thenodeep's statue, another statue came into view. Jack came over and read the inscriptions. It was the statue of Themisphere's tenth king, Thewolden.
The tenth king was a burly man holding the Themisphere's King Sword.
He continued. As expected, he found the statue of Themisphere's ninth king not far away. And so on. Each past king of Themisphere greeted him as he proceeded along the corridor.
After he saw the statue of the second king of Themisphere, he entered a large dome hall. When he entered the hall, it lit up. There was no clear source of light, the wall itself seemed to illuminate and dispelled the darkness. The light wasn't bright, it was soft and soothing.
As the darkness was dispelled, Jack laid eyes on the founder of Themisphere Kingdom, King Theridan.
He was a tall man with a strong gaze. He had a thin beard and wide shoulders. He held the Themisphere's King Sword in his hand. But the most impressive thing was the other statue behind him.
"Is… Is that a Therras Beast?" Jack asked.
The statue behind King Theridan looked like Therras in its sovereign mode. It stood bipedal and by doing so, was much taller than Theridan's statue in front of it.
The size of the therras beast statue was slightly larger than Jack's Therras. It also had more refined muscles. But the most distinguishing feature of this therras beast statue was the two wing-like things on its back. But instead of calling it a pair of wings, it was more like a pair of giant webbed hands.
"Is that the founder's therras beast pet? It was so different from mine," Jack uttered.
"The founder's therras beast is in its perfect form," Peniel answered.
"Perfect form? I thought its sovereign mode is already its perfect form?" Jack asked and walked forward to have a better look at the therras beast statue.
As he got closer, Theridan statue suddenly glowed. A pillar of light shot down from the ceiling. Jack was taken aback by this sudden turn of events and stopped.
He then heard a voice that seemed to reverberate around the room. "The thirteenth king of Themisphere! One who is not of my descendants. One who is not of this world. You dare to come before me?!"
A ghost version of Theridan floated before him. Jack also felt strong mana radiate from this ghost. However, the mana he sensed told him that this ghost was harmless to him. His radar also didn't show it as hostile.
Thus, Jack's alarm, upon seeing the appearance of this ghost and its antagonizing declaration, subsided.
"Greetings, King Theridan," He said to the ghost and bowed. This was, after all, the first king of Themisphere.
"Hmph! At least you are polite after stealing my kingdom," Theridan said.
"I didn't steal it. King Themos threw it away for the Sangrod Empire. I simply picked it back up since it is ownerless," Jack defended himself.
Theridan stared at Jack sharply. The stare made Jack think that perhaps he had spoken too candidly. That was his bad habit. He figured this made him a truly bad player in political matters.
But instead of being offended, Theridan gave him an unexpected query, "You can hear me?"
"Uh… Yes…" Jack answered, confused. "Am I not supposed to hear you?" He asked.
"Well, I… Normally, when my descendants came down here, they only saw my apparition. They couldn't hear me," Theridan said, but it was more like he was muttering to himself than talking to Jack.
'Oh? So your words when you appeared were not to scare me?' Jack thought.
The ghostly Theridan seemed to realize he had lost his composure in front of Jack. He hurriedly straightened himself and then declared with regal disposition, "Outworlder! You might not be of my descendant, but I can see you didn't mean this country any harm. You have also been good and supportive to my youngest descendant, Alonzo, who should have been the rightful king. It is unfortunate that my line finally ended, but a country doesn't exist just for its king, contrary to what that upstart Themos thought. As long as people are believing and upholding its virtues, Themisphere will continue to exist, no matter who the king is!"
"Um… Thank you for your support," Jack said with another bow. "So, you know about everything that happened?"
"I know everything that happens within this palace," Theridan replied.
